


Coca-Cola

by fulmiinata



Category: Free!
Genre: Fibbing, Fluff, Girls crushing on Haru and Makoto fending them off, It's okay Mako we understand, M/M, Poor baby's jealous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-16
Updated: 2013-09-16
Packaged: 2017-12-26 18:30:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/968893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fulmiinata/pseuds/fulmiinata
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Makoto can't bear to think someone could take Haruka away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coca-Cola

**Author's Note:**

> From marukaprompts on tumblr, which I swear is one of the cutest blogs ever <3
> 
> "Imagine girls in Iwatobi asking Mako informations about Haruka, like what is his favorite food, and Makoto answering the complete opposite just in case the girls make a move on his Haru."

“Tachibana-kun!”

Makoto turned around, seeing a blonde second year waving at him. She was in one of his classes, but her name always escaped him — was it Chieko? Chiyoko?

The girl bounced up to him, neck craned so she could look at Makoto’s face. She was rather petite, probably a few inches shorter than Nagisa. “Matsumoto,” she said, pointing at herself. “Chou, remember? We have Art together.”

Ah. _That_  girl. Now he remembered. She sat in front of him, and while her art skills didn’t quite measure up to Haruka’s, they were exceptional. More than once had Makoto found himself trying to hide his terrible drawing from the teacher after he’d finished gushing over Matsumoto’s.

“Absolutely enchanting!’ he’d cry. “Gorgeous! Why, if I didn’t have Nanase-kun in my class, you’d definitely be the top student!”

And then he’d see Makoto’s dismal, three-legged rendition of a cat, which would change his expression from one of delight to an almost pitying one.

Yep, he remembered Matsumoto Chou.

“Listen,” continued the blonde, turning to her head away to conceal the faint blush across her cheeks. “I just wanted to ask you something...”

_Uh-oh_. Makoto gulped, Was this another confession? For some reason, girls found him appealing enough to continually confess their feelings for him, not realizing that all their attempts would be in vain because Makoto just _liked someone else_.

What he going to tell her this time? 'No' seemed too harsh, and even if he did admit he liked someone else, based on past experiences that wasn’t going to do anything...

“...Do you happen to know what kind of candy Nanase-kun likes?” Chou’s straight-cut bangs fell over her eyes, the previously pink blush darkening to a lurid red. With one hand she adjusted her school bag on her shoulder, and twirled one of her large curls with the other.

Makoto almost choked on his own spit. Oh. _Oh_. _Ooohhhhh..._  Oh god. Oh god, no. Haruka had managed to stay off the girls his age’s radar, only occasionally receiving a card or two for Valentine’s Day, and there was that one time a girl gave him a kiss on the cheek for his birthday in kindergarten. But that was it. Makoto never had to worry about some girl becoming Haru’s girlfriend, and eventually the most important in his life — _he_  was always the most important thing in Haru’s life. If Haru got a girlfriend, would he be left behind?

No. He was not about to let that happen, nuh-uh no way not in a million years.

“Oh, well, Haru likes peanut candy. Like a lot.”

_Ohmygod, what?_  Haru didn’t like peanut candy, Haru was _allergic_  to peanut candy. What would possess Makoto to say such a thing? But then again, if Chou were to give him peanuts, Haru would reject her indefinitely, and then Makoto wouldn’t have to worry about her ever again.

Chou looked up, her face a little skeptical. “Really?”

Sweat began to collect on Makoto’s palms and brow, and he was only 60 percent sure his eye didn’t twitch. “Y-yes. Haru likes peanut candy. Haru. Likes. Peanut candy.” Makoto reiterated that last part more than once, like it would be true if he kept saying it.

“Okay!” chirped Chou, offering Makoto a beaming smile before bouncing off to her next class. Makoto could only stare after her, still in disbelief at what he’d told her.

_Haru likes konpeito_ , he wanted to tell her, but the words got tangled up in his throat and refused to come out.

* * *

 

 The next day at lunch, Makoto sat on the roof with the rest of his friends, having completely forgotten about yesterday’s incident. He absentmindedly took sips of his juice while poring over some notes he’d taken about the new book they were reading in Lit, only half-listening to Nagisa’s animated conversation about something.

“N-Nanase-kun?” someone asked, timidly.

Juice spurted out of Makoto’s mouth and onto his neatly-written notes, smudging the ink to the point where they became illegible.

_Oh, no..._

Out of the corner of his eye Makoto saw Haru perked up (or, well, as perky as Haru could get), eyes widening up slightly at the sight of Chou in front of him, blushing furiously with a pink paper-wrapped box in her hands.

“Hm?”

Chou thrust the box into Haruka’s arms, turning redder still. “These—these are for you!” she squeaked, and dug teeth into her bottom lip.

With the same disinterested expression that he always wore, Haruka loosened the ribbon and carefully tore off the paper, then removed the box lid to reveal several small packages of crunchy flour-shelled peanuts. He looked down at them, then up at Chou, eyebrow drawing up just barely.

“No thanks,” he deadpanned, returning the box to Chou and refocusing his attention to the mackerel bento Makoto’s mother had packed him. The blonde girl looked absolutely stunned, tears collecting at the corners of her dark brown eyes. Her lower lip quivered.

“Haru-chan,” Makoto used his best admonishing tone, “You don’t need to be so rude.”

“But I don’t want it,” the irritated glint in Haruka’s eyes was almost undetectable.

“N-no, d-d-don’t worry, it’s fine. R-really,” Chou interjected, mustering up a weak smile. She swiped at her cheeks, clearly upset, but gave a small laugh and started to walk away. “I’ll... I’ll see you later Tachibana-kun, N-Nanase-kun.” she said with a whimper.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Makoto stood up, arms crossed. “Haruka.” he said, garnering the black-haired boy’s attention. “That was  _very_  rude of you to dismiss Matsumoto-chan like that.”

Haru made an indecipherable sound in the back of his throat, subtly rolling his eyes at Makoto and turning his head away. His bento now lay forgotten in his lap. “I didn’t want it, though. I’m allergic to peanuts.”

“She didn’t _know that_ , Haru, you still could have accepted it.” Every word that came out of Makoto’s mouth made him feel even more guilty.

“Why would I do that when I don’t like her?” Haruka’s voice became more insistent, and increasingly irritated.

Makoto just sighed and uncrossed his arms. He shook his head, knowing that this was an argument he wasn’t going to win because there was no reasoning with Haru when he thought he was right.

* * *

 

 "Hey, Tachibana-kun.”

This time, Makoto had no trouble associating the tall, large-chested blunette standing in front of him with a name. Takahashi Ayano was the most popular girl in the grade, and arguably the prettiest — even Makoto admitted to having a crush on her in middle school.

“O-oh, hello Takahashi-chan,” Makoto stammered, because even he was somewhat popular, he sure wasn’t _Ayano_  popular, and being in the presence of someone so confident was a little bit stunning.

Ayano rolled her emerald-colored eyes, blowing a piece of shaggy fringe out of her face. “At least call me by my first name, won’t you? Anyways, you’re friends with Nanase Haruka, right?”

“Uh, yes.” _As if everyone didn’t already know_.

“Like, best friends?”

“Yes.”

“Good, then you know what his favorite soda pop is, right?”

No, not _again_ , Makoto couldn’t handle lying twice in the same week — that earlier fib with Matsumoto-chan had nearly destroyed him.  _However_ , there was absolutely no way Makoto could let Haru get caught up with Ayano — she’d wrap him up in her group, and Haru would leave Makoto behind for sure. He just couldn’t risk that.

Another little white lie it was.

“Grape soda.” said the brunette, slowly so he wouldn’t mess up. “Haru-chan’s favorite kind of soda is grape soda.” Once again, the sweat collected on his palms and brow, and swallowing seemed like an Olympic feat. It was as if someone had stuffed a wad of cotton in his throat.

A saccharine smile spread across Ayano’s full lips. She placed her hands on her cheeks, a faint pink blush was sprinkled on them. “Thanks, Tachibana-kun! You’re a doll.”

She sauntered away, and Makoto had a bit of a hard time tearing his eyes off her retreating figure. _Don’t do that_ , he thought. _It’s rude to ogle_.

“Makoto,” he heard someone behind him say.

_Uh-oh_. That voice was definitely not a girl’s.

Haru approached Makoto, his eyebrows drawn together and a curious expression on his features. He made direct eye contact with Makoto, causing the brunette to squirm a little under his unwavering stare.

“Makoto,” Haru repeated. “I don’t like grape soda.”

“H-Haru—”

“You know I don’t like grape soda. Did you lie to Matsumoto too, about the peanuts?”

“I...” Makoto hung his head in shame. “I’m really sorry, Haru-chan. I was scared that if you accepted one these girls’ confessions and became their boyfriend, that you would forget all about me and leave me behind. I know it was wrong and I feel absolutely _terrible_ —”

Gently, Haru placed his lips on Makoto’s, standing on his tiptoes. They were a little dry, but otherwise soft and warm. With an almost admonishing nip, Haru pulled away, a slight smirk painted on his face.

“Idiot,” he said. “As if it would be that easy. And drop the -chan.”

**Author's Note:**

> The title is somewhat relevant to the story: Haru despises grape soda, and his favorite kind is actually Coca-Cola (Rin's a Pepsi kind of guy though, which led to some fights when they were kids).
> 
> Thanks for reading! <3


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